Sabudana Ladoo

Sabudana ladoo recipe with step by step photos – a sweet recipe which is good for fasting as well as during festival days.

Sabudana or tapioca pearls is one ingredient which is much used during fasting or vrats in India. You can make variety of Recipes with sabudana like Sabudana khichdi, Vada, Thalipeeth, Kheer, Tikki or cutlets with them.

This method of making sabudana ladoos were shared by my mom. She had seen this on a tv show. She only saw the way these ladoos are made and told me the method. I had no inkling of the quantity of the ingredients that need to be used. So just eyeballed everything and made the recipe.

The original one uses ghee. I have used oil. Now the difference between using oil and ghee is quite apparent in sweets like ladoos.

Firstly the ladoos don’t have the aroma of ghee. Secondly after cooling down, the ghee will solidify at room temperature and give a nice hold and shape to the ladoos.

This does not happen with oil. The ladoos do hold shape but not like the ones made with ghee. The ladoos made with ghee are dense but the ones made with oil are a little loose.

Coconut oil works well as a substitute for ghee. However, since the ladoos have already desiccated coconut in them, I did not add coconut oil. I did not want too much of coconut flavor in these ladoos.

I have added hot oil later too, as I realized that the 4 tbsp oil I used to fry the cashews was not enough to bind the ladoos. With all the limitations and setbacks, these ladoos were good. They do stick in the teeth as its the nature of tapioca pearls to become sticky and gluey.

Despite this, the sabudana ladoos tasted awesome and you will like them even more, if you are fond of having coconut in sweets.

So do give this sabudana ladoo a try if you are looking for a different variety of ladoo, you want to make for festive or fasting occasions.

Few more Ladoo recipes on the blog which you might like to check are Dry fruits ladoo, Atta ladoo, Motichur laddu, Rava ladoo and Ragi ladoo recipe.

How to make Sabudana Ladoo

1. Roast the sabudana (tapioca pearls) in a kadai or pan in a low flame. This step takes a long time… About 30 mins. You have to stir continuously. The pearls swell a bit and become crunchy and light brown when nicely roasted. If you bite, they won’t be crisp as fried sabudana pearl….. But you can bite into it.

2. As mentioned above, this process of roasting take approx 20 to 30 minutes on a low flame. You can see in the photo the color and texture of the pearls. Cool the pearls completely and then grind to a fine powder in a dry grinder.

3. Lightly roast the desiccated coconut for 2-3 minutes.  no need to brown the coconut.

4. In the same pan where you have roasted the coconut, add the ground sabudana powder.

5. Add powdered sugar and mix well.

6. Heat oil or ghee in a pan. add chopped cashews and fry them till golden.

7. Pour this whole mixture of oil and browned cashews into the sabudana mixture. also add cardamom powdered and nutmeg.

8. Mix very well.

9. When the mixture is still slightly hot or warm. Make medium sized balls from it.

10. Make all the ladoos in a similar way. Sabudana ladoo are ready to be served.

11. You can also store the sabudana ladoo in an air tight container in a fridge for a week or so. Enjoy the sabudana ladoo.

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